|
China and Russia on Friday ignored a U.S. call for the U.N.
Security Council to condemn North Korea for a recent attempt to
launch a satellite and instead blamed the United States for
increasing tension on the Korean peninsula.
"This creates holes in sanctions against North Korea passed at
the U.N. Security Council," Defence Minister Lee Jong-sup said
in a speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Asia's top
security summit.
On Wednesday, North Korea launched its first spy satellite into
space, although it ended in failure with the booster and payload
plunging into the sea. It has vowed to conduct another satellite
launch soon.
"Choosing inactivity to North Korea's unlawful behaviour will
worsen the security of not only the Korean peninsula, in the
Pacific region but also the entire world," Lee said.
The South Korean minister reiterated that coordination with the
United States and Japan to deter North Korea was important.
The three countries have agreed to begin sharing North Korean
missile warning data in real time "within this year", South
Korea's defence ministry said in a statement after a meeting
between the South Korean, U.S. and Japanese defence chiefs.
That is part of a pact agreed in November to speed up
information-sharing.
The defence ministers "strongly condemned North Korea's recent
long-range ballistic missile launch, under the guise of a
so-called satellite", the statement said.
North Korea argues it has a sovereign right to space
development.
(Reporting by Kanupriya Kapoor and Ju-min Park; Editing by Raju
Gopalakrishnan, Robert Birsel and Edwina Gibbs)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
